Two men aged 27 and 55 will stand trial before Limassol Criminal Court on June 29 on charges of selling 16,000 protective masks that had been provided for free to a professional association by the state but later turned up for sale in Nicosia pharmacies.
The two are father and son in law.
They have been released on bail and ordered to hand in their travel documents and report to the police station pending trial.
The two were first remanded in custody on May 16 as as Limassol police investigated how a quantity of masks imported by the government for public and private sector employees ended up on the market.
The complaint was initially filed by the director of health services of the Health Ministry who said that masks of the same type imported by the Republic to be distributed for free to public and semi public organisations turned up for sale at pharmacies in Nicosia.
It later emerged that they had been sold to a pharmaceutical company for 5920 euro and were allegedly part of a batch of 60,000 given to a professional association chaired by the 55 year old to distribute among its members.
They face a total of 10 charges including conspiracy to commit an offence, theft, obtaining money under false pretenses, fraud, offences under the quarantine law, money laundering and abuse of power among other.
